Prose - do we need it?

[Leanne]

As TOMH suggests, sometimes prose is the best vessel for what you have to say -- whether it's narrative, reflective, essay style, whatever. Just as with poetry, there is an art to writing good prose. It need not exclude poetry. The best prose always includes poetic elements of some kind, whether sonic devices (alliteration, assonance etc) or figurative (metaphor, simile etc). Many people who've started in prose and then switch to poetry begin with the idea that poetry is just abbreviated prose, but experience soon tells us that though there are common elements, they are quite different beasts.

As for prose on these boards, it's always welcome but I think it's fair to say that a good, thorough critique takes a lot of time even on a short poem, so the extra time to critically read prose might not always be available. That's why I prefer it in miscellaneous rather than a critique forum -- that way, if you've got time to do a close reading and in-depth comment, you can but there's no pressure.